This report comes as Peugeot continues to struggle with losses, battered by dwindling sales in Europe, its core market. It posted a net loss of €5 billion ($6.75 billion) in 2012 and consumed €3 billion of operational free cash flow. While it expects to halve that figure this year, the company is nevertheless continuing to lose share in the European automobile market.

Peugeot’s board meeting, set for Oct. 22, comes after months of talks with Dongfeng about a potential expansion of their existing partnership outside China, including an investment in Peugeot, people familiar with the matter said.

That said, it’s debatable whether the company needs a large capital increase.

“”We have not regarded Peugeot as having any liquidity issues that needed solving by more capital given its good access to credit markets,” Citigroup said. And a large capital raise, if this is what is planned, “could even potentially give the signal that Peugeot is uncomfortable with its current guidance on cash burn, which is to reduce this at least in half in 2013 with a very significant reduction throughout 2014.”

The U.K.’s energy secretary, Ed Davey, said Sunday he is “extremely close” to making such a deal, which would be good for consumers by “helping people with their energy bills long term.” He added that the negotiations for the deal had taken several years, with his focus primarily on cost.

The U.K. government is seeking to build new nuclear reactors to replace aging ones and curb its carbon emissions. It has been in talks over the past two years with the French power group, the world’s largest nuclear operator, for two to four new reactors that it would build and manage at the current site of the Hinkley Point nuclear plants.

The scale of investment in the nuclear program could be “tens of billions of pounds,” Mr. Davey said Sunday.

Shares in Dassault Systemes slumped 9.1% after the French software company announced Monday that its third-quarter revenue was below its announced target, and also reduced its guidance for the fourth quarter.

Revenue in the period totaled €496 million ($675 million) instead of the €520 million targeted, as a result of delayed contracts at the end of the period and because some customers decided to rent instead of buy software.

The third-quarter results mean that Dassault Systemes expects its fourth-quarter revenue to be lower than previously expected, possibly as low as €565 million.

The company is citing transaction delays caused by the lengthening of capital expenditure decisions, the shift to rental activity, and weakness in emerging markets, noted Deutsche Bank. “Most of this sounds Dassault specific, but the ‘capex decision lengthening’ aspect may weigh on the broader software sector today.”

Dassault has been a “well-loved stock and a consistently solid performer for the last two years,” Deutsche Bank added. But this has resulted in a hefty valuation, and thus “it may get hit hard today.”